A new undersea fiber-optic cable has gone into operation that links Japan with the regional Trans-Pacific Express Cable Network (TPE), Japanese carrier NTT Communications said Monday.
The TPE cable comprises about 18,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable and interconnects China, South Korea, Taiwan and the U.S. at speeds up to 5.12 Tbps (terabits per second). The new cable runs from Shin Maruyama in Chiba, near Tokyo, and is the result of a US$80 million investment made into the cable network by the Japanese carrier.
The cable is operated by NTT Communications, China Telecom, China Unicom, Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom, South Korea's KT Corp and AT&T and Verizon Business from the U.S.
The new connection comes into operation slightly later than originally planned. In mid-2008 NTT said it planned to launch the Japan connection sometime around March this year.